Sir Robin Knox-Johnston - just finished the Velux ROUND THE WOLD SOLO
Born 17th March 1939, in Putney, London. The eldest of 4 brothers.
School at Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, the same school as Bill Tilman
and Graham Greene.
A term mate of Michael Meacher MP. Main interests long running, swimming
and boxing. Not very good at team sports, indeed, chose tennis as
opposed to cricket, but usually slipped away to
Grandparents house to work on a 1927 Austin 7 car instead of either.
Went to sea in the Merchant Navy in 1957 as a Deck officer. In 1962
married childhood sweetheart, Suzanne, who passed
away in November 2003 as a result of ovarian cancer. One daughter, Sara,
born in Bombay 1963, and now 5 grandchildren. Interests:- Sailing,
Exploring by boat, Maritime History, the marine environment,
youth development, shooting.

In 1992 RKJ was invited to become President of the Sail Training
Association, a youth development organisation which operated two topsail
schooners “Sir Winston Churchill” and “Malcolm Miller”
and also organised the annual Tall Ships races. Before he retired in
2001 £11 million had been raised to replace these two vessels with two
larger brigs “Prince William” and “Stavros Niarchos”
respectively left and right below.

Also, there is a nice steel sailboat for sail in Nain, Labrador. A
fellow just finished doing the North East passage last fall. Made him
Nova Scotia sailer of the year.

Then he got wacked by a 42 year old driver as he was riding his bike.

BTW - said sailor was 72.

Now slightly off topic, not that old, but with a different kind of handicap.

Howard Blackburn was born in Nova Scotia in 1859. At the age of 18, he
moved south to Massachusetts, seeking work as a fisherman, and became
part of the Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing community.
Blackburn first rose to fame in 1883. While he was fishing on the
schooner Grace L. Fears, a sudden winter storm caught him and a crewmate
unprepared while they were in their dory, leaving them
separated from the schooner. Blackburn began to row for shore, despite
the loss of his mittens; he knew his hands would freeze, so he kept them
in the hooked position that would allow him to row.

After five days with virtually no food, water, or sleep, he made it to
shore in Newfoundland; but his companion had died during the journey.
Blackburn's hands were treated for frostbite, but could
not be saved; he lost all his fingers, and both thumbs to the first joint.

Blackburn returned to Gloucester a hero, and with the help of the town,
managed to establish a successful saloon. Not content with this, he
organised an expedition to the Klondike to join the gold
rush; rather than go overland, he and his group sailed there, via Cape Horn.

After the quest for gold failed, Blackburn turned his attention to a new
challenge — to sail single-handed across the Atlantic Ocean. This had
been done before, by Alfred "Centennial" Johnson
in 1876, and Joshua Slocum had completed a single-handed
circumnavigation in 1898; but for a man with no fingers to undertake
such a voyage would be quite an accomplishment.

He sailed from Gloucester in 1899, in the sloop Great Western, and
reached England after 62 days at sea.

Returning to Gloucester, Blackburn continued to prosper as a
businessman; but he still hankered for adventure. In 1901, he sailed to
Portugal in the twenty-five-foot sloop Great Republic,
making the trip in 39 days. In 1903 he again set out alone, this time in
the sailing dory America, but was defeated by bad weather.

Blackburn died in 1932; his funeral was attended by many of the people
of Gloucester. He was buried in the Fishermen’s Rest section of
Beechgrove Cemetery.

Live and learn, or live an snooze, you choose.




Larry wrote:
Vic Smith wrote in
:

Anybody know if this storm was well-predicted?


It's been going on for days and is very well reported, here in
Charleston. Trucks are being warned to stay off the high bridges. Winds
were 50 mph here, yesterday and about the same, today.

A front off New England is pushing this low backwards down the East
Coast. Seas offshore of Charleston are over 30 feet high, according to a
local radio station, this morning. Airplanes are landing with big crab
angles at the airport as it's blowing between runway headings. The sky
is clear, but 50% pop tonight and tomorrow as it approaches us.

They had no business being out there, even in clear weather! This
statement from the webpage says it all:

"a couple in their 70’s and a 40-year-old woman who were stranded 200
miles out to sea."

IN THEIR 70'S?! COME ON! How stupid is that, offshore 200 miles with NO
YOUNG, STRONG BACKS ABOARD?!!

As long as rich stupids like these are buying boats, I still say
LICENSING should be mandatory. You want to sail...fine. You take the
course, TAKE THE PHYSICAL TO SEE IF YOU REALLY BELONG OUT THERE (no
matter what YOU think), then, if you pass all the REQUIREMENTS....then,
we issue you a LICENSE, we can revoke when you are too old, to PREVENT
YOU from endangering the lives of young rescue swimmers, helo crews and
boat crews just because you are too stupid and pig headed to see you are
too old to go "out there" without enough MUSCLE and ENDURANCE for that
worst case scenario you should be REQUIRED to be prepared for.

NOONE IN THEIR 70'S NEED APPLY! They should be PASSENGERS of ABLE
SEAMEN!


Larry